Patriots' run is the best ever *

By any measure, we are seeing the most dominant run of excellence any NFL football team has ever managed.

JONATHAN COMEY

It's taken me awhile to figure out Patriots fans.

Having had to play psychiatrist to them so many times over the past few years — every time they lose, it seems like Panic City — my conclusion was that, as a group, they just didn't have any appreciation for how good they've got it.

But after watching the Patriots score 108 points in 103 hours, then spending the majority of my post-Thanksgiving hours breaking down the last six seasons of Patriots football (the Wes Welker Era, for lack of a better title), I think I get it.

Patriots fans aren't spoiled.

They're damaged.

They can't quite wrap their heads around what they're seeing. How can a team capable of doing what they just did do things in the postseason like lose decisively to the Jets and Ravens — at home, no less? How can a team that frequently looks like Alabama playing Sam Houston State then go out and lose the Super Bowl to the Giants "» TWICE!?!?!

It's enough to turn any fan a bit crazy. It explains why the fans booed Tom Brady early in the season, why they left the Patriots-Cardinals game in the fourth quarter. It explains why they follow every loss with a flood of calls to sports radio.

It explains it all.

You see, by any measure, we are seeing the most dominant run of excellence any NFL football team has ever managed. And we're not talking about the Patriots teams that won three Super Bowls; those teams were incredibly strong, incredibly clutch, very well-balanced — but not dominant.

No, we're talking about the franchise that remade itself as an offensive juggernaut; from the moment Wes Welker and Randy Moss lined up at wideout and Tom Brady went from Mr. Clutch to Mr. Touchdown, this franchise has set a new standard for dominance.

All of the great franchises in league history have had similar hallmarks when they are in the midst of a big run: A lot of easy wins. Very few decisive losses. A winning percentage approaching 80 percent. Dominance in the turnover game.

I hunkered down in the bunker of stat-geekery and came out with a field of 10 great franchises that had spectacular six-year runs. My findings? The Patriots dominated the dominating. They have more 20-point wins, more 30-point wins, more 40-point games, more games with 3-plus turnovers than anyone, and were in the top three in winning percentage, double-digit wins and fewest double-digit losses.

Bill Belichick tried to explain Friday how his team does things like it did on Thursday night.

"We go out there on the punt return or kickoff return team and we're always thinking about taking it to the house; trying to execute the play properly, whether it's blocking a punt or returning a kick, whatever it happens to be, that that play is going to end up in the end zone for us," he said.

"The same thing on a lot of plays offensively or defensively that we're trying to get turnovers, we're trying to make big plays, score on long runs or long passes. We're always thinking about those plays. Obviously you're lucky if you get a couple of them a game, but "» those things are always in the back of your mind on every play."

Thursday night's game was a good example of how many ways this team can beat you. They were playing without three offensive starters that are pretty much the best in the business at their position (TE Rob Gronkowski, LG Logan Mankins and RT Sebastian Vollmer), yet they moved effortlessly up and down the field.

They scored on defense, they scored on special teams — only kicker Stephen Gostkowski failed to join the party, missing a field goal, but he's still on pace to score 162 points this year, which would be the ninth most of all time.

"I thought it was almost impossible to score 35 points in a quarter, but they found a way to do it," Rex Ryan told reporters after the game. "You have to give them a ton of credit. That's a great football team. Like I said, they don't need any help, and when you don't protect the football"»35 points in a quarter is ridiculous."

So, it's agreed. This team is pretty awesome.

But just as no other franchise has ever been this scary for this long, no franchise has ever put together six such remarkable seasons in succession without picking up a ring (or two, or three) along the way.

Had this run not been preceded in fairly short order by the three Super Bowl titles, Patriots fans would surely be as bitter and confused as Red Sox fans were during the heartbreaking days of Pedro Martinez's prime.

As it is, they are simply befuddled. The shock and awe that their team unleashes on the league has been replaced, in the end, by the shock and awe of an unexpected defeat when it counts.

And here they are again — one of the favorites to win it all as the playoffs come into focus. It's not their last chance, with Brady still in his prime and plenty of good young pieces around him, but you have to wonder how many more peculiar failures in January and February Patriots fans can take.

Jonathan Comey is sports and features editor for The Standard-Times. Email him at jcomey@s-t.com